Case Studies

Forestry

In 2006/2007 TREE AID's forestry staff supported 14 projects in 142 villages across Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mali, helping 49,500 villagers to grow and protect trees and improve their farms. Villagers developed a range of technical knowledge and skills including tree seedling production, grafting fruit trees, managing bush fires, bee-keeping and assisting the natural regeneration of trees. Two projects focussed on support for new local resource management systems, aimed at securing better access to and control of natural resources.

Tatus Azure, AFAACOM, Community Nursery & Family Woodlots Project, Kamega, Ghana
“I was struggling to produce enough food for my family and couldn't afford to send my children to school. Then, six years ago, TREE AID helped me set up an orchard. At first it didn't work too well, because the water was too far away, so a donkey cart was provided. This was a turning point in my life. I can transport drums of water for my trees and my family, as well as use it for firewood and crops. I can also hire it out. So far I have planted 150 cashew trees, 40 mangoes, 45 dawadawa trees, 35 cocoa trees and a couple of orange and calabash trees. Now I can feed my family. The money I earn from the extra fruits is enough to send my kids to school too.”

Money From Trees

Over 4,000 villagers benefited in 2006-2007 from our Village Tree Enterprise work. In Burkina Faso and Mali, 164 groups in 34 villages completed their first enterprise development plans based on tamarind juice, baobab flour, shea nut butter, dawadawa gravy powder and many other tree products. An additional 18 facilitators were trained, bringing the total number to 52. This allowed a further 47 enterprise groups to start to produce business plans and a pilot project was launched to extend this work into eight new communities in northern Ghana.

Zoenabou Congo, Donsin, Burkina Faso

“Like me, many in our group cannot write but a facilitator wrote down all our ideas. She asked us what our needs were, what trees there are, what our experience was and how we could use this to meet our needs. We visited markets in towns to find out what tree products sold best. Nuts from the shea tree fetched much more money there than from village markets, so we decided we’d sell shea nuts to towns. The money will mean I can repair damage to my home from the recent rains. I will also clothe my family. Our women’s group will build storage for the nuts so we can sell them when the price is right. Also, TREE AID will help us to grow trees that produce more nuts. This project will benefit the whole village, our children and their grandchildren. It has shown us that we can our own find solutions to poverty”.

Farmer, Guitanga Issaka has planted trees in orchards, woodlots and around his fields as part of Associate Base Fa ndiman's Tree Nursery and Windbreak Project in Fada N'Gourma, Burkina Faso. Beneath the trees maize is growing, and he told us that, “I have been farming for 25 years and I am getting the best results I have ever had because of TREE AID's help”. “People were not used to planting trees," he explains, "They thought trees would take so long to grow that they themselves would die before seeing the fruits of those trees. Now they have seen over and again the trees fruiting and they are still alive!!”